Town Council - Regular Meeting

Move for our agenda, adoption of tonight's agenda. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion, questions, changes in the agenda as proposed? If not, those in favor of the adoption of the agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. And it's adopted. Change item 3 minutes, regular meeting of June 23rd, 2026 to pull those minutes. 2nd motion made in 2nd to approve the minutes. Is there any discussion from the errors or emissions that are noted? Hearing done those in favor of the minutes please signify by saying aye. Aye. So adopted public remarks. Is there anyone present who would like to make public remarks? Do you want me to speak? Just speak into the mic.

That's a little bit weird.

Maybe you should back up.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a little strange. Come right here.

Right here. Yeah. There we go.

You look good.

Dale Herrick, 74 Royal Oaks. I wish to inform you that I'm forming an East Hampton Residents' Advocacy Group, totally bipartisan, I mean, nonpartisan. make up Republicans, Democrats, unaffiliated residents. Our task will be to study and evaluate the East Hampton Board of Finance Board of Education budgets. We will look at any areas of possible cost savings that would make sense to the majority of East Hampton residents. We'll also look at any and all possible revenue streams for the town. Our job will be to report back to any findings and recommendations to the town council, plus any areas that would need further study that we would be beyond this group's capabilities we would report that back to you uh one of the main goals is to educate ourselves and the taxpayers as to how and why some of these costs come about how the board of finance board of education have tried to keep costs down where there were options when there were options to do so so thank you thank you welcome is there anyone else who must

Thank you. I'm Ross Kaplan. I reside at 127 Comstock Trail, and I chair the East Hampton Clean Energy Task Force. I'm speaking here tonight pursuant to your agenda item 8B, the review and possible action on the Volpost final location agreement. And I'm asking that the town council take approval action tonight. on the installation of these projects. And I say tonight because there's always a risk that opportunities such as this can be lost through deferrals. It's been over about a year now that our task force has been looking for ways to accomplish two objectives. First is to expand EV charging within our town to serve the public and to free the town from fiscal and maintenance responsibilities for any such expansion. In September of last year, you, our town council, authorized the town manager to pursue a project through a Volt Post Pura, Public Utility Regulatory Authority, pilot program to provide privately owned chargers in our town at two locations of our choosing. Chargers that would free the town of responsibility and costs for their installation, operation, and maintenance. And this is a pilot. I just want to say that this is a pilot program that only a very select handful of towns were successful in securing. And we were one of those towns. And I have no doubt that there are a number of towns just hoping that we falter. There are lots of people who were said no to because this is a limited program. As a group, we settled on the town hall and the village center for this charging capability. And while we looked at a couple of locations, we never lost sight of one other goal. to ultimately free the town from its responsibility for and costs associated with the current charger in the Village Center parking lot on Main Street, adjacent to the airline trail. That cost currently runs about $5,000 annually in electricity charges that the town pays year after year. Okay, as this process unfolded, we were able to make trading out this old and aging charger as part of the project, a recurring financial benefit we didn't even raise in the initial proposal. And thanks for no small part, I want to say this, to the efforts of a very dedicated group of volunteers that I'm very privileged to work with. And those volunteers never lost sight of the fiscal responsibility in pursuing clean energy. And I also want to help thank the state, the town employees, state employees, town employees at town hall and at the library, public works that facilitated us all along the way. I know all these, the invisible volunteers and the invisible employees, they get a lot done.

Russ?

The last thing I'll say is that all i'll say is that this project i was informed today that we are entitled to a second um charger at the town hall it's all part of the project no new costs associated with it it is important i'm out of time i will leave you the notes uh if i'm accused of not having told you something important because i ran out of time thank you thank you bruce that was three minutes i timed this and timed this

You did a good job. Don't worry. Thank you.

Do you want to finish up? You can go to agenda item 13. Yeah. Is there anyone else who would care to make public ? But under Dick Johnson,

21 Long Crossing Road. I would like more transparency in the education budget, at least to the degree that the town budget displays their items and related costs. I don't think that the education should continue to be a secret. We're not looking for names and addresses. We're simply looking for what are we spending money on and how much it is costing the town. Thank you.

So anyone else who'd like to make public remarks and comments at this time? Is there anyone online? We'll move along. Agenda item five, presentations.

You have no presentation.

Agenda item six, bids and contracts.

No bids or contracts.

Agenda item seven, resolutions, ordinances, policies, proclamations.

None of those items.

Turn to item 8A, continued business, subcommittee reports and evidence.

Jack? I talked about American 250 last July 4th and Old Rome Day, lots of American 250 activities went on. I'd just like to mention a couple. So one was the float in the Old Rome Day parade that was prepared by some volunteers commemorating the history of East Hampton. And I think it got rave reviews. It will be entered into the Middletown, the county parade that was supposed to be July 4th. That will now be Labor Day. Right. So that'll be great. There was the reading of the Declaration of Independence on Wednesday that a small group of us, well, maybe not so small, but probably about 100 people heard it. And that was great fun. It was a town resident dressed up and I'm not sure how we, but in early Garb. And the third thing I just mentioned coming up, there's going to be a presentation by the Wangok Indians in October. There's been a movie prepared about their history. And Gary O'Neill, who was a resident of East Hampton Wayne Gunk, Indian, will make a presentation. So lots of other stuff going on. Get prepared for August 8th, when there will be a town picnic. And then later, it's the light parade, the light up boats.

Thank you. Is there anyone else? Subcommittee reports? Move on. Agenda item 8B, review of possible action in both post-final location agreement.

I'll just work from here, if I may. So you have in front of you a couple of items related to the charging station. Certainly Russ gave you a good summary, so to speak, during his comments before. But basically, the council is asked to approve the final locations here at the town hall. It's a move across the aisle. So, to speak, they were originally intended to be against the outside of the of the parking lot. They're going to move to the inside so that we have better access through the conduits that exist to the street lights. It's going to, it's proposed to go in the tool in the location where the 2 handicap parking spaces are at the East end of the building. Those really don't get used there. That was, I think, designed when there was a different intended use for the community room than there is today. So we're going to move those out front so that we have that many and they'll be better used. They'll be better available. They'll be right outside this window here where the other two are. So those are going to get moved and the spaces that are there, two of them will be, one or two of them will be assigned as electric vehicle charging stations, depending on whether they can put both of the proposed units in. The other, and it's a more significant change, is to go away from the community center parking lot. You'll recall we were going to do it in the back of the parking lot. I think that conduit size, wire size, they just couldn't get enough juice I think is probably really what it boils down to. So we're proposing to put it in the village center where the existing charging station is, replace that system there from the free system that it is today to the charged no pun intended, system that it would become in the future. Again, I think there would be two units there. As I alluded to in my note, the only thing that we'll have to do is that the town will have to acquire a street light to put there and Volt Post will install it for us. They'll even acquire it for us, but we'll have to pay the cost. Street lights are not terribly expensive. I did a little checking around. We're probably looking at something between $1,500 and $3,500, depending on what we get in terms of height and the way it looks. I think we'll certainly go for a black bull. I'm going to go for something that's downcast. We won't match the ones that are out by the street, A, because I don't think we can, plus the way those illuminate, probably not the best in today's culture, so to speak. But we want to make sure that you'd like that back part of the parking lot and the two spaces that we're talking about. So we'll do something to cast down there. In that location, but that's the only real real issue that we face. And so the council is asked to go ahead and approve those final locations for up to 4 both post charging stations.

Any questions in time?

So the cost will now be incurred by the user and. Eliminating the approximately 5,000 dollars a year that we're paying right? You just have this 1 time class for the goal. Correct.

And frankly, the natural question, especially today is whether, how is that accounted for in the budget? We sort of anticipated that that would come. So we reduced that budget already anticipating that the council would. Go along with that, and then we would be able to make that change.

Okay, so 2nd, 2nd discussion. Mayor Mrakas, And so, therefore, all about those in favor of.

Mayor Mrakas, I.

Mayor Mrakas, was posed many.

Mayor Mrakas, guys have it, thank you, did you want me. Mayor Mrakas, Very good.

Mayor Mrakas, New business. reviewing possible action on transfer station fees.

In front of you is a memo that Matt Walsh, the Public Works Director, penned for your consideration. Let me lay a little bit of the background. The Board of Finance, as part of its consideration of the revisions to the budget for this particular referendum, determined to pull a little bit of the labor funds out of the transfer station, which would have eliminated basically two days a month of services, half the time basically at the station. The comment made by them was if the council were to adjust those fees to essentially reduce the deficit that facility operates at, they would be willing to work with you on doing the additional appropriation to put the days back. You recall that a way an additional appropriation works is that if it's covered by a fee or another revenue source other than our own taxes or our savings account, so to speak, the additional appropriation can be made by the Board of Finance and the Town Council together. So what Matt has done based on the data that we have from the transfer station, and while it is much better than it has been in the past, it's not perfect, but based on the data that we have for the transfer station, He is able to identify approximately how much we send out or collect rather in bulky waste, which is really the piece that cost us the most to dispose. It's 190 some odd dollars a ton going out the door and we don't collect nearly a percentage of that, so to speak. So Matt has proposed to you two things. One is essentially a 50% increase in the fees associated with disposal of bulky waste. In some cases, that's a pretty small impact. A stuffed chair goes from $10 to $15. But if you're bringing us a dump truck full of material or a double axle trailer full of material, that's going to go from 140. Well, a dump truck would go from 140 to 210 alone. So basically, those folks are bringing us close to a ton of material and they're going to start paying for a ton of material. The challenge, of course, we have is that we can't weigh material. We don't know how much it weighs when it comes in. We have to guess. And so that's the proposal in front of you. It also calls for an increase in the annual user fee, the so-called sticker fee, basically doubles that fee from 10 to 20 dollars. That's just the amount someone pays to come and begin to dump at the transfer station. There are still the discretionary items. So if you bring that double axle trailer, but you've got just a stuffed chair in the corner, we're not going to charge you for a double. We're going to charge you for the chair. Our guys have been doing it a long time. They understand where they can flex and where they shouldn't. So doing all of these changes would net about $29,000. The cut that was made was about $24,000. So this is an opportunity for the council to move that number up and collect more of those revenues. Right now the transfer station probably still operates at about a $200,000 deficit.

David, a question? Yes, sir. On the back page under brush, dump trucks and trailers, you're eliminating a fee to non-residents?

No, not eliminating, just saying no change. So the fee for brush for commercial and non-residents would remain the same as it has been in the past, as it was just implemented, actually, frankly, this last fiscal year. Sorry if there was some confusion on that, but those fees would still remain the same. The council, you'll recall, pulled about half of the funding that was in the transfer station for brush disposal It costs us, in the way that we used to do it, about $20,000 per disposal. We did it a couple of times a year. The council took $20,000 out of the transfer station, indicating that we would only do it once a year. Matt continues to look at opportunities for disposing of that material, and he thinks he's got a line on an opportunity that will dramatically reduce that cost for us so that we can probably dispose of more of that within the budget that we have. So we continue to look at opportunities at the station for improving the operation if we continue to take it, if we continue to operate it.

Any questions?

I'd just like to comment that I'm glad we're thinking along some lines that will get back access to the transfer station at least every once every week. I was very dismayed. quite frankly, to see the recommendation and shut, you know, cut it down to only two days a month. I think that that's going to hurt a lot of people. I've heard about it already. So I'm glad we're taking some step to, in fact, institute that. So I do appreciate that.

And trying to put the impact of those changes on the bigger loads. Yeah. You know, that's where I think that falls. And that really goes to the fact that we a year ago, that you rather a year ago, recognized that some of those bigger loans needed to pay a little.

Yeah. I'm a bit hesitant on the large increase in the bulky waste. I mean, they're all about 50% increases, something like that. And I fully understand that we do operate at a loss if you were to look at it from a You know, I think it's a service that, you know, is worthwhile just like. When you think about it, every department in the town operates out of loss. If you want to look at it like that for crying out loud, we do. I don't know. I, I would. I back off those increases a bit. Because I do think they're kind of kind of expensive and expensive and, for example, you take a look at. A couch was $40 each now it's up to $60 sleeper so so from 50 to 75. The amount of money aside what I would hate like heck to have happened is that people think that oh man I gotta. I got to pay 75 bucks to get rid of this piece of it and find it in the woods along the side of the road, that sort of thing. That's what I'm concerned about. So I don't know. I'd back those off. I mean, if they increase 50%, say, here, I'd maybe bring it up to like 35%, 30%, 35%. That's what I'd Uh, to try to make it a little more palatable and and I know, uh, we may not hit. We wouldn't get the 29 grand, but we'd still probably come up close to the 24 we're looking for.

Mr chair, if I may, I don't think that this is something we should vote on tonight. I think we need to see what happens with the budget 1st to determine where we even are at this point. Um, you know, are more cuts going to be necessary or are we going as is. And then potentially look at these fees in lieu of trading off those days if we think that's a good choice. And I think we need to, I know other councils have looked at this in the past. I've mentioned it here and there with other people. We've talked about it a little bit. Look at our other options. I think this, we lose a lot of money on the transfer station and I'm not saying that every certainly there are departments that we lose money on. We understand that. But I think. We have another service in our town that provides this there is a business that provides almost all of these services. I really think it's time that we start looking at what our other options are and potential cost savings in this area with what we could work out whether we have to send it out to bid and, you know, look at other towns and other options too. But I do think we need to figure out. A different solution for the transfer station, because there are other options available to us that would be more cost effective and would. Potentially provide better service to the residents because they could go to the transfer station 6 days a week. Instead of 4 days a month, so that would be my recommendation is that we hold off. At least on this until after the budget passes, and then look at what other options are.

I don't agree with that. And the idea right now, I think, Karen, your suggestion is a good suggestion, but it's going to take time to take a look at it and decide what is right, and in the meantime, what to do. So again, quite frankly, I want to keep that station open as many days as we have it right now as, what should I say, as reasonably financially sound as we can make it. If we want to take a look at it, a new plan, I think that would be fine instituted next year. I think that would be fine for 6 months or you name it. But I don't think we should jump right now and say, no, shut it off. I think we should continue until such a plan and such a review has been made. That would be my, my suggestion. I'm going to agree with both. Yeah.

So I think you're right. We need to look at other avenues. As Karen said, I agree 100%. I also, if we go to Rich right now, I don't want to stop what we have, and I think we've got to keep it going. But I also want to agree that, Karen, I think there's some other avenues that we need to look down and see if there's a different way to go about those things. I kind of go to Rich. I think we should do something tonight just to keep it going. And also, as the budget passes, we still visit either way, I guess. But sooner or later, it's going to pass, we hope. And we're going to look at some other avenues and put this out.

I don't see anything wrong with the prices that have been proposed. It seems to me they're not all that high. And my guess is they are a lot lower than the competitive costs. If you took these things to a commercial disposal place, I'll bet the prices would be much higher. So I recommend that we approve it as has been proposed.

Because Mr. Cox, they're not going to charge you for a dual axle trailer when it has one thing on it, you know?

Right. May I just make one more comment? And really this is, take this for what it's worth. Staff can look at alternatives for how we handle the days of closure. You know, it's a budgeted figure. We could perhaps make sure that we're open most days in the summer, for example, so that we can pick up brush and those sorts of things. and we are open fewer days in the winter months, a month. Maybe that's a way that we stretch the budget a little bit, gives you a little bit of time to think if in fact you want it, and allows us to move forward with looking at alternatives, which we'll do regardless of whether we adjust these or don't. So just a thought about how we handle that. If you feel you need time, I think there's ways that we can give the council time and still provide a service to the community.

And I don't, uh, I'm sorry, man.

I think we should raise that.

Yeah.

I think we should raise the rates. No matter, no matter what I think raising the race is the right thing to do.

Um, And I think, I mean, I'm fine with moving forward with this. I'm just wondering if, depending on what happens with the budget tonight, is that going to then change our decision? If we're saying, let's raise the fees. In lieu of closing those 2 days, and we're making that decision tonight and then this budget fails. Then we may still have to look at eliminating those days, depending on where we end up where we want to end up with the budget after tonight. So my only recommendation is, do we want to consider waiting until at least our next meeting? So that we know where the budget is, or do we think we go with it and hope for the best at this point?

I find either way we should be raising the rates. Whether we're open 4 days or 2 days. Okay.

Yeah.

so this would raise the rate this would raise the rate just raise the rates so yeah we'll raise the rates and we'll worry about how many days we're open after the budget oh okay that's not up to us at this point right okay was there a motion to motion to raise the rates to the uh by man a second motion made in second is there any total discussion

And for vote, those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Still adopting.

We'll figure out the implementation plan there and get them in place.

Very good. Agenda item 9b, review and possible action on fiscal year 2026-2027 public water system operating budget.

A little bit odd to be having this conversation with you a week after we had this conversation with you. But in the scenario of the WPCA and the Town Council as two separate bodies, the Town Council has retained in the water system the authority at the end, right? So you have to prove the budget and rates. In this case, you've been presented with a budget that has a small increase of 1.27%, just under $3,000. It's a very small budget for the water system. And the recommendation from staff from us was to do that budget with no change in rates. So there would be no need for a public hearing on rates or anything of that sort. They would stay as they are today. And we believe that we can accomplish this budget within that rate system. So in front of you is a recommended budget of $235,600 for the water system. an increase, as I said, of 1.27% for $2,964.

I'll move the approval of that budget.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Is there any further discussion or any questions? If not, those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Town Manager's Report, agenda item 10.

Thank you.

I just want to mention three items that are included in my report, which is, as always, is included in the packet and on the Town Manager section of the Town's website, and I think distributed elsewhere as well. The three items I want to mention kind of relate to taxes and then to some work that's going on. So remind everybody, tax bills based on the temporary mill rate of $27.79, which as you recall, was set on the tax levy collected last year against the current grand list. So those tax bills are due now, payable by August 3rd without penalty. here in the town hall or by a variety of methods. And I'll remind everyone in the community that you can pay online, small charge if you're going to use a credit card and want to get those points, but it doesn't cost you anything if you have it as a direct withdrawal from a checking account or a savings account. The town consumes that fee. We'd like to encourage folks to do it that way. The other two things I want to mention relate to kind of middle Haddam-Cobalt primarily. Many of you saw on Facebook and saw some notices from the town that if you have a PO box as your primary address, especially those who live in Cobalt and Middle Haddam who are required to have a PO box, we need to make sure that we know both your street address and your PO box because the post office is no longer willing to do that translation. If we only know your street address, that piece of mail will get returned to us. Unfortunately, we started learning that when motor vehicle taxes and property tax bills started going out at the beginning of this month. We got a few of them back. We've been working with the post office and with those individuals to try to get them to them. But the challenge is primarily in motor vehicle. You have to make sure that you register with the state that your address is, you know, X Shipyard Road, post office box Y, Middle Haddam, et cetera, et cetera, with the DMV, because we download those addresses every year. And if the DMV doesn't know that you have a post office box, we won't either when we download that information. So it's an encouragement for everyone in that situation to make sure that to the best of your ability, we know that information for property tax bills we can handle that translation uh and that the state dmv knows that for your uh your vehicles and your your license um that'll just prevent problems in the future unless the post office works to continue to be as efficient as it can then stops making that translation the other thing i want to mention for the folks in the middle hadham area and anyone driving through that area Route 151, which is the main state highway through that part of town from highway 66 to the southern town limits and actually beyond, is going to be milled and repaved in the next several weeks. Tomorrow, probably starting with the milling activity, which is the removal of that top surface of the asphalt, starting at the south end of that project area, basically the Salmon River, and moving north. So for the next week or so, people can expect that they will see activity in that area as they mill 151. Paving then begins in early August and will probably take a few weeks to accomplish before they get that completed. So we all knew it was coming. We could see that they were doing stormwater work and raising catch basins and things of that sort. So that work is finally coming. and they will be undertaking that. So folks are reminded of that. There are signage, there'll be detours, there'll be lane closures, all the things that come with that activity. Those are the comments I have that I wanted to highlight. Again, the written report is in its entirety available to the public and to the Council. If there are questions, I'll certainly answer them.

Questions? I don't have a question, but can I mention one thing that wasn't in your report? Sure. The Lions Club, Very graciously donated a large storage building to belt on drama and to use for all of their theater materials, which there are lots and lots of and all of their costumes. And that was put in place on Monday and filled. Very well, so appreciate all the volunteers that came out and help to fill that storage and move all of those items, but especially to the Lions Club for providing that because that is a much needed storage space for our theater program. So, thank you to them for doing that.

Located on the high school.

Yes.

By the field.

Comments Thank you. Thank you 11 appointments.

Oh, we have no appointments.

Agenda item 12, tax refunds.

Mr. Chair, I would like to make a motion to return two refunds totaling $2,420. Is that right for all of us? Is there a second?

Second. Motion made and seconded. Is there any discussion or questions regarding any items? If not, those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. So carried. jim barker, agenda item 13 public remarks, is there anyone moving us, would you like to make. jim barker, This is good and very. jim barker, guys ready one president would like to make. jim barker, public remarks or comments. jim barker, Once twice. jim barker, You should move on agenda item 14. John Potter, communications correspondents and announcements your reports from various boards and conditions with our package and on the website. John Potter, And agenda item 15. Annette Haworth, I lost to adjourn. John Potter, It was on paper 75 by 79. Annette Haworth, I. John Potter, Was named your journey Thank you all.

John Potter, I see what happens in this.

John Potter, Yes, if we say that. Yes, almost, almost.